Environmental Lubricants Manufacturing
based in Grundy Center, Iowa. ELM makes
several greases specifically developed for
truck maintenance and use. He pointed
out that truck greases require ratings by
the National Lubricating Grease Institute.
A grease rated "LB" meets the require-
ments of grease for truck chassis, whereas
a grease with a rating of "GC-LB" can meet
the requirements for wheel bearings of
automobiles or trucks.
The ratings are based on tests devised
by ASTM International, formerly the
A m e r i c a n S o c i e t y f o r T e s t i n g a n d
Materials. The group of technical experts
and business professionals, represent-
ing 150 countries, develops voluntary
consensus standards, which are used
internationally to improve product qual-
ity. The standards ensure that grease can
be used by centralized grease systems on
trucks, and meet manufacturers' warranty
requirements.
"Biobased products need to be prop-
erly formulated to meet performance
standards; and specifically formulated to
meet or exceed oxidation stability and
cold-temperature performance of min-
eral-oil-based greases," Honary said via
email.
Honary stated that ELM's biobased
truck greases are price competitive with
petroleum products. "Currently, in the
retail areas they are sold at about the same
price as petroleum greases," he said. "In
large quantities, and in special areas such
as truck fleet maintenance, they cost the
same or could be lower priced than petro-
leum greases because ELM manufactures
its own products and uses a microwave
processing technology." The vendor's web
site (elmusa.com) includes a link to a video
clip from the History Channel that shows
the company processing its soy-based
product in large, commercial microwave
units. Honary said that using the micro-
waves makes production more efficient,
and the product price-competitive.
The company's greases and lubricants
are sold under the private label brand
UltraLube. The products include grease
tubes, grease tubs, and grease cartridges
as well as pails and drums used by truck-
ers and truck maintenance operators,
Honary said.
ELM has a biobased grease with a rating
of GC-LB, the highest rating of the National
Lubricating Grease Institute (NLGI), Honary
said. It meets manufacturer requirements
for automotive and truck bearing use, he
said. The lineup of UltaLube products also
includes aerosol penetrants and lubricant/
penetrants.
l F O N
www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | DEcEmbEr 2014 23
BUSINESS OPERATIONS
